"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you." - C.S. Lewis
Perspective is the ability to perceive something in its proper context. The Bible's King David had perspective when, as a teen, he was found standing eyeballs-to-bellybutton with the gargantuan man-killer Goliath. Having only a sling and a few stones in-hand and his faith in God in his heart, David assessed the situation, his surroundings, and decided to go for it. From David's view, aloft the mighty power of God, he was actually looking down on Goliath, who didn't stand a chance. David had the right perspective.
Thousands of years later, during World War II, another hero stood against all odds, but his perspective saved the day. Then Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Abrams and his troops found themselves surrounded by the enemy, and rather than accept defeat, Abrams chose to fight. He is quoted saying, "For the first time in the history of this campaign, we are now in a position to attack the enemy in any direction."
And so it is with Israel in 2011.
Humor me long enough to imagine yourself as a citizen of a country that is the size of a city like Houston, Los Angeles or Toronto. Also consider that as an inhabitant of this speck on the map, you must spend your every waking moment wondering if this day will be your last. Will the enemies which utterly surround you fulfill their unified commitment to destroy you and your loved ones - simply because you exist? And every day, Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look their enemy in the eye and stand their ground. They have the right perspective, but our president does not.
One can only hope President Barack Obama is up to speed on the state of Middle East affairs and especially the Fatah-Hamas alliance and their vow to destroy Israel. The heinous statement suggesting that Israel give up land they fought hard for is not naïveté', but cognizant, reprehensible and malevolent intent. The attempt to backpedal, as soon as the clicking sound of closing Jewish campaign donor pocketbooks was heard - is quite telling.
While other U.S. presidents have made admirable attempts to make peace in the Middle East, Obama is the first to turn his back on Israel, while trying to give to the Palestinians what was never theirs to begin with. There is no country of Palestine nor has there ever been.
Prior to the infamous 1967 Six Day War, Israel made every effort to avoid conflict by attempting negotiations with its hostile neighbors only to be met with threats, taunts and harassments. In 1963, the Arab League organized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), whose charter called for Israel's destruction. The PLO's guerillas attacked Israeli citizens 35 times in 1965, 41 in 1966 and 37 in the first quarter of 1967, infiltrating Israel from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Shedding light on the motivation for all the attacks, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser explained, "The danger of Israel lies in the very existence of Israel, "promising Arabs would enter Palestine "with its soil saturated in blood." From 3000 feet above Galilee atop the Golan Heights, Syria joined the attacks by shelling Israeli farms and villages forcing women and children to live in bomb shelters.
Having no choice - after the United Nations refused to intervene on its behalf and America's State Department said America would remain "neutral in thought, word and deed." - Israel proceeded into war alone. In the end, Israel brilliantly captured the Sinai, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights-thereby unifying Jerusalem.
From that time, forward, every honest attempt Israel makes in self-defense becomes twisted and contorted into an alternate version of reality. A Middle East expert friend of mine recently told me, "We are in effect codifying insanity by formulating policy based on the legitimacy of the emotional and hysterical Muslim view of the world, which bears no resemblance to historical or political reality."
It truly is all about perspective.
Susan Stamper Brown is a syndicated columnist and can be reached at writestamper@gmail.com
Slabside posted at 11:14 am on Wed, May 25, 2011.
Susan, you hit the nail on the head. This joke of a POTUS is so bent on appeasing the Islamic world that he throws the one ally we have in the ME under the bus every chance he gets. 2012 can't come quick enough.
RationalHuman posted at 5:17 pm on Wed, May 25, 2011.
Susan Stamper Brown claims to be a military advocate, but quotes mythology from the Bible as if it were factual.
Does she support the second largest demographic of our troops...the nonreligious?
Or is she a supporter of the immoral, bigotted "Don't Pray? Don't Say" program?
Just curious - AND YES THERE ARE ATHEISTS IN FOXHOLES FIGHTING FOR YOUR FREEDOMS RIGHT NOW.
Slabside posted at 6:18 pm on Wed, May 25, 2011.
Free, is that you? Welcome back!!!
RationalHuman posted at 6:36 pm on Wed, May 25, 2011.
www.rockbeyondbelief.com
Support our troops - All of them.
sockratties posted at 6:41 pm on Wed, May 25, 2011.
Susan starts right off with an error. There is nothing in the definition of perspective that indicates being proper. It simply refers to a point of view. Susan’s is pro-Israel.
I wonder if she would still feel that way if the U.N. had, in 1947, plunked Israel down in the middle of Texas, California or maybe Oklahoma.
Zionist extremists believe they have a right to the “Promised Lands.” The indigenous peoples don’t agree. This is a continuing dispute that has been ongoing for over 3,000 years. Jews have been immigrating to Israel since before WWII during which their 11% minority has increased to an overwhelming majority. Israel declared itself a sovereign state in 1948. Again how would we feel if a contingent of immigrants were to declare an area of our land (say, Iowa) as their own country?
President Obama is, indeed, cognizant of how much influence the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) wields. It has been described as one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, DC. Its critics have stated it acts as an agent of the Israeli government with a "stranglehold" on the United States Congress, and with its power influence, preventing anti-Israeli laws from being passed. No country should have as much sway over our congress as do the Israeli lobbies.
While Susan is lauding the brave Israelis, comparing them to Colonial Abrams surrounded troops, and to a God inspired David defeating Goliath, she should also remember that during the 1967 six day war Israel had no problem attacking an unarmed U.S. ship that was in international waters:
“The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy torpedo boats, on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two Marines, and one civilian), wounded 170 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nmi northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish.” [from Wikipedia] Lyndon Johnson was president at the time and the incident was played down as an accident. Israel eventually paid restitution to the victim’s survivors.
Before we start spouting off about a correct or incorrect perspective we had better look from all points of view. Only by looking from every side can we determine where there is middle ground. This should be viewed as a cultural and land war, which it has been for three millennia. Denying that there are “Palestinians” doesn’t mean there aren’t people who have ancestral claims to the land as old and legitimate as that of any Zionist.
This is another case of a colonial power (in this case England) creating a problem and leaving it for others to clean up.
If we are supposed to support Israel they should at least try to reciprocate. They should go to the bargaining table in good faith, quit building settlements that provide fodder for their Arab critics, not kill our sailors and marines, and make an effort to achieve peace. The Zionist radicals among them will not agree to any of this.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 10:30 pm on Wed, May 25, 2011.
Susan, thank you for giving your American Jewish opinion on the continuing Israeli "Holocaust" against the Palestinians. Unfortunately....the overwhelming majority of other Countries in the World are sick and tired of seeing Israel "starving and ghetto-izing" the Palestinians.
The Arab Spring has changed the Middle East forever. Israel and it ally in the UN , American can no longer hold Palestine Statehood ....."hostage". It will happen in 6 months.
This September, Palestine will become a Nation recognized by the United Nations General Assembly.................the facts on the ground have overtaken diplomacy.
It is now a ....FAIT ACCOMPLI...........PALESTINE WILL BECOME THE WORLD'S NEXT NATION..................[beam][beam][beam][beam]
wdgnas posted at 4:20 am on Thu, May 26, 2011.
how is the present administrations stance on isreal different from the former administrations?
sockratties posted at 8:35 am on Thu, May 26, 2011.
Something many self proclaimed pundits such as Susan and her anonymous expert have done is spread an outright lie. President Obama did not say Israel should return to the borders of 1967. In fact, Obama and Netanyahu are in exact agreement.
Obama said Israel and the Palestinians should agree to the 1967 borders “with swaps.” Netanyahu told the Knesset after returning to Israel that they need to agree to borders which would extend beyond the 1967 borders by “negotiation.” These are the same thing.
Also, Netanyahu purposely looked perplexed as part of political show. As he told Richard Nixon, way back then, he has to look like he doesn’t agree or the Palestinians will never agree to something he seems to be in favor of.
CSalafia posted at 9:59 am on Thu, May 26, 2011.
1967 borders with land swaps has been the US position for at least the last 15 years. Clinton, Bush, Ehud Barack, Ariel Sharon....they've all said the same thing.
But now that Obama's said it, it's the mostest horriblest idea ever! Seriously...give it a rest.
VofReason posted at 2:14 pm on Thu, May 26, 2011.
Yes, let's make sure that people who stap bombs to themselves and go into pockets of civilians to blow themselves up have their way. Better yet, I think those who shoot rockets at civilians are better allies then Isreal. I would like to thank you keen historians and (ahem) political experts for clarifying that up. Isreal is the only Democracy or for that matter civilzed society in that neck of the woods. Oh, and it is Gods people. We should be trying to help them expand.
RationalHuman posted at 4:28 pm on Thu, May 26, 2011.
"Oh, and it is Gods people"
LOL@Bronze Age mythology.
Every culture has their own god(s) and they are that god(s) people.
"those who shoot rockets at civilians"
Might want to talk to Israel about that - in addition to murdering American servicemen aboard the USS Liberty, many civilians on board were also killed by rocket attacks. Go ahead, Google "USS Liberty Incident" - I'll wait. ;)
CSalafia posted at 10:14 pm on Thu, May 26, 2011.
VoR -
First, it's Israel, not Is-real.
Second, Israel is not the only Democracy in the area. I can think of two right off the bat (Turkey, Lebanon) including one which has the largest Christian population in the Arab world (Lebanon). Oh, and what about Iraq, you know, the country we exported democracy to?
Oh, and the PA is a democracy as well, with unlimited suffrage for all who are of voting age.
So, before you mock historians and political experts, you might want to check the google before you make a fool of yourself.
Third, it's up to God to end the exile (Jer 29), not a bunch of Brits thru the Balfour Declaration.
Fourth, with the way Israel treats the Palestinians, it would be more biblical for God to send them into exile again. Apartheid, which is what is going on, is not part of God's plan. It's what sent them into exile once, and it'll be what sends them again.
Dale Whiting posted at 9:08 am on Fri, May 27, 2011.
If like Creighton Abrams, today's Jewish state find's itself surrounded by the enemy such that it may attack in any direction, it has two choices. 1) Find an external allie upon which it may always rely to back upself up, or 2) make peace. One choice perpetuates conflict, the other ends it productively.
When was the last time you walked into a neighborhood where neither you nor any of your family had resided for upwards of two millenia and declared it to be your homeland, practically evicting those whose relatives had live there during that millenial time frame? That is one perspective. You pretty much know the other. Both sides are correct and both side are wrong. Both sides need to learn to get along.
Accuracy posted at 11:54 am on Fri, May 27, 2011.
CSalafia posted: “1967 borders with land swaps has been the US position for at least the last 15 years. Clinton, Bush, Ehud Barack, Ariel Sharon....they've all said the same thing.”
----------------------------------------------
There's no such thing as 1967 borders. Technically (in detail) those are the 1949 armistice lines.
Just the same, President Barack Obama demanded that the Israelis withdraw to what he called the 1967 borders, and laid down specific parameters for the talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Obama's demand would leave Israel only 9 miles wide at its most critical point, and the waist of the nation utterly indefensible.
With defensible or indefensible lines . . . Hamas will not recognize the Israeli occupation under any condition.
sockratties posted at 2:19 pm on Fri, May 27, 2011.
Accuracy... What is in the terms "with swaps" and "negotiation" that you can't understand? Did you listen to the President's speach or PM Netanyahu's report to the Knesset? Apparently you are working with second-hand or edited information. Those lines are for reference only. All future lines have to be relative to something. why not those well defined lines?
Accuracy posted at 4:41 pm on Fri, May 27, 2011.
sockratties.... Go back, and “listen to the President's speech or PM Benjamin Netanyahu's”
In President Obama’s speech, May 19, 2011 – Obama delivered an unprecedented rebuke of the Israeli people. He called Israel's legitimate West Bank settlements an "occupation", and by calling for a return to the 1967 borders "with mutually agreed swaps", he was calling for a divided Jerusalem. It was Obama’s endorsement of a two-state peace solution, with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and with the terrorist group, Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed to Obama what's at risk if Israel returns to those defined lines (leaving Israel only 9 miles wide).
After hearing Netanyahu, May 22, 2011 – in his Sunday speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – Obama backpedaled to ease Israeli anger and to alleviate concerns over his Middle East peace proposals of Israel returning to the 1967 borders. Obama did stress to AIPAC, America's commitment to Israel's security.
This week, during Benjamin Netanyahu's address speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress, the prime minister called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to tear up his recent unity deal with the terrorist group Hamas.
sockratties posted at 6:27 pm on Fri, May 27, 2011.
In his speach to congress, Netanyahu said "In any peace agreement that ends the conflict, some settlements will end up beyond Israel's borders. The precise delineation of those borders must be negotiated."
Two other components to the exchange between the two leaders is that Netanyahu's right-wing party has only 27% of the Knesset so he has a narrow line to walk, and AIPAC has tremendous clout in D.C. so Obama doesn't want to upset them too much.
Talk about the tails wagging the dogs, but that's politics.